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2005-03-06 Entry: "Well That Was Mixed"

Okay, well, we finished The Karate Kid - as I'd seen the end of this on TV a few weeks ago, there was nothing surprising here. It's a fun little tale, and I was surprised to see on the packaging that Pat Morita was Oscar nominated for his performance here.

After much dithering over what to watch next (and a check on the grand prix time - 17:30), I eventually settled on disc 1 of Star Trek The Original Series, Season 1... thinking that I'm not going to be able to sit through large chunks of it in one sitting so I might as well plan to instersperse the discs with something else.

But we open with "The Man Trap" - and we're stupidly going to listen to these with the remixed 5.1 audio rather than the original.

People killing, shape-changing salt eater is the order of the day here. This has held up quite well and is a thoroughly entertaining episode dealing with McCoy's previous love life. And I don't remember the Uhuru / Spock interactions at all...

"Charlie X" sees a teenage boy come on board who has mysterious powers - he can make people disappear, transform anything he wants, or create stuff that wasn't there before. Like any teenager, he's a bit of a handful...

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is the very silly "Edge of the Galaxy" episode, where they try to breach the barrier at its edge. But they're out there looking for a ship that disappeared many years ago that's now sending a distress signal.

What the hell happened to their uniforms? Did they decide to go with the Winter look this time? They're all in the same dull brown, and they've got big polo-neck type collars. Very strange, but then wasn't this the second pilot episode?

Okay, they've got a recorder from the SS Valient from two hundred years ago. Sulu appears to be head of the Astro-Sciences division at the moment, and we've got Roger Mitchell at the helm. No sign of Uhura, no short skirts and Go-Go boots, but Scotty is head of Engineering, so there's at least a little continuity.

The recorder seems to indicate that after trying to leave the galaxy and getting back the crew started doing frantic searches for information on ESP. And then the Captain giving the self destruct order.

Mitchell and some woman get affected by the barrier, and Mitchell ends up with silver eyes... he's also able to read at phenomenal speeds and manipulate the medical instruments with his mind.

"The Naked Time" sees Spock and a random crewmember investigating a science station where everyone has frozen to death. It's nice to see this again after having seen the Next Generation remake - Sulu chasing people down the halls with a sword is always fun to watch, and this is the first of many "lets find a way to give Spock emotions" episodes.

So disc finished and I should switch to something else... I've really got to get done with Dungeons And Dragons, so we'll stick in disc 3 for a bit... see how far we get.

Opening with "The Treasure Of Tardos" and Dungeon Master sends them to Tardos Keep to retrieve something to stop Demodragon who's going to destroy the realm. And they have to help someone who stands against them... whatever that means. At least they've got a map this time!

The keep is surrounded by Orc soldiers, and Shadow Demon is there as well... one of those orcs sounds like Megatron... and then Venger turns up. But they escape in to the keep and get a frosty reception from the Princess.

Ooh! Cryptic end message - there was once good in Venger, everyone makes mistakes, Venger was Dungeon Master's mistake... whatever that was supposed to mean.

On to "City At The Edge Of Midnight" and they've got to save a bunch of children from both this world and their own. After a fight with a bunch of monsters, helped by a caravan merchant, the background music turns into The Champions incidental music.

They have to go to a mystical dream world after Bobby is kidnapped, and then restart this big clock...

In "The Traitor" the friends are caught in a conflict between the cloud bears and the orcs... Hank is helping the orcs and Venger, while the others are in the tops of the trees with the bears.

Oh, I see - Venger has Bobby, and Hank's pretty much given in and agreed to work for Venger in return for no harm to come to the barbarian.

Wow, they've killed Venger again... I wonder how long it'll be until he comes back... one episode?

And then a break for an almost entertaining grand prix race. The rules might make the next one very interesting, considering they have to use the same engine as for this one...

Because I'm really bouncing around here, and because I'm drowing in unwatched TV shows, I've stuck on Millennium season 2, and we left it with Frank's wife missing. Now I've read a few reviews of the second season and they all say that Chris Carter took his hands off the season and it went in a direction he wasn't happy with, but that it's one of the best seasons of television ever... that's a pretty tall order to live up to - we'll see...

We open with "The Beginning And The End" and we see the abduction that took place at the end of the last season from Frank's wife's point of view. The killer's a creepy looking guy... oh it's Victor Tooms, or at least, it is once he takes off the fake moustache and sideburns...

There's something suspicious about the Millennium Group here - the killer seems to know about them, and that Frank should be digging deeper into what they do, but he's dead before he can tell them anything.

"Beware Of The Dog" sees the Group send Frank to a town that's seen a mysterious animal attack. The townsfolk think he's the new sheriff, but they all lock their doors when night falls and don't let anyone in. And then the dogs appear... cue Frank getting savaged, then meeting the mysterious guy in the woods and finding out the Group is involved.

Something about the new guy's house has thrown the town off balance and the dogs have moved in - and killing one doesn't help, there's always five dogs!

"Sense And Antisense" sees a crazy man who seems to be patient zero of a possible contagious epidemic. Except it's all a set-up and the Department Of Energy are using Frank in an experiment on the human genome gone wrong.

"Monster" sees accusations of child abuse on an old woman running a daycare center. Frank, and the other psychologist the Group has sent both think it's one of the girls in the class - him because of his visions, her because she sees angels! And this is one evil, creepy little girl... what is it about creepy children? I need less creepy children in my viewage! After Sea of Souls, now this! And thinking about it, Revelation of the Daleks had a creepy child in it as well... enough already!

And on that note, indeed, enough already... to sleep, perchance to dream...